Rain, rain go away, come again next month

/

Y'all, this dreariness is bringin' me down. At this point I feel like I should pour a Scotch and turn on some plaintive country music. As a complete aside, my favorite-ever country music song title is "Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life)." Why those parentheses are necessary, I don't know, but I rather like the sound of the whole thing. In any case, this weather is the pits, some sort of horrible purgatory that involves winter, spring and precipitory crap. If I remember correctly, Saturday was nice, but it's been flanked by some awfully dreary days, the kind during which you never really know or care what time it is. Presently, the Meyer lemon jelly I just finished is cooling, and Oliver is pretending to talk on the phone to someone, Behubba, who is being told "your nibbles are dirty and I'll clean them tonight." People, nibbles is how he says nipples. Sweet jesus, I don't even know where this stuff comes from. Jack has taken about 85 years to color approximately 2% of a coloring page he "really, really wanted." Now Oliver is riding on J's back, and they are laughing hysterically. The only bummer about Oliver laughing hysterically is that he always(!) gets the hiccups when doing so. Is that not the saddest side-effect of a delightfully good action?

I just got some fun news. This photo of some farmers market persimmons I took just after bringing them home won FRESHFARM Market's winter produce photo contest and will be published in its upcoming newsletter. persimmons

Alright, I guess it's time to throw myself back into the mayhem surrounding me and confront the dreaded hour o' bath- and bedtime.

Zero Dark Thirty

/

As far as I can tell, I'm the only person who's not been completely bowled over by Zero Dark Thirty. It's an amazing story of persistence and sleuthing, but I thought the film itself lagged at times. It just didn't draw me in from the get go as I was expecting, as The Hurt Locker (also Kathryn Bigelow) did. I never felt transported, forgetting all time and place until the credits roll and jolt me back to the present. T quite enjoyed it, and as we arrived home, my parents texted saying they'd just seen it too and thought it was superb. I was dragging like an injured snail by the time we reached the theater so perhaps I just wasn't in my most receptive state but I just didn't connect with many of the characters: Jennifer Ehle's performance bothered me like fingernails on a chalkboard, and even the mighty Jessica Chastain didn't grab me until nearly a third of the way through. The final scene was totally suspenseful, even though you know what's coming, but by and large I found myself repeatedly wishing I were seeing Argo again instead. Afterwards we enjoyed a wonderful pizza, and I'm now hoping to read a few articles from today's paper before I crash. Tomorrow, Ol and I are meeting a college friend I've not seen in a couple years for lunch, and I have a meeting after we pick up J but at some point am hoping to make some meyer lemon jelly and something yummy for dinner.